Hello there, and welcome!
If you hadn’t already guessed, my name is Holly Pryce. Pleased to meet you!
I’m a web developer for web designers, specialising in custom WordPress websites. I thought I would take some time to introduce myself and tell you all about my journey to becoming a web developer.
A bit about me
I’m currently in my early 30s and I live on the Wirral with my partner of 15 years. I’m originally from rural Shropshire, and I moved to Liverpool for university.
When I’m not working I love travelling (my current obsession is Japan!), watching Formula 1, swimming and attending rock concerts. I also like taking my dog (Daisy) for walks along the beach, visiting theme parks, and re-watching episodes of Gladiators from the 90s.
The Piczo days – where my love for building websites started
My passion for web development began when I was 14 years old and I made my first website on Piczo.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Piczo before, it was basically a very simple website builder aimed at teenagers, with “drag and drop” functionality.
In the beginning, I use the basic features on Piczo to put together my website, but it wasn’t long before I found fellow Piczo users making websites that looked so much more advanced than mine. How did they do it? Everything seemed far beyond the capabilities of Piczo.
I soon learned that some people were using these two magical things called HTML and CSS. I had no idea what they were, but I wanted in!
I taught myself to code by taking some code (yes, stealing) and playing around with it, trying to figure out what changes I could make. Then as I became more curious I started to research more about HTML and CSS.
Moving away from Piczo and on to sub-domains
Like everything online, nothing stays the same forever. Piczo was bought out by another company, turned into a blogging platform, and then shortly after it was closed down altogether.
While I was sad that Piczo had changed, I was also excited to start something new.
As I didn’t have a bank card, and as I was too scared to ask my parents if I could use theirs, I couldn’t buy a domain and hosting so that I could create a “real” website. So I applied for a sub-domain instead. Back in the day, people would offer up sub-domains of their domain to people who didn’t have their own domains and hosting.
Having a sub-domain was a real learning curve for me. Along the way, I discovered content management systems and used them to create a blog.
Adopting my first domain
I’m not sure if this happens nowadays, but years ago people used to put domains that they’d bought and didn’t need any more up for “adoption”.
I was so desperate to own my very own domain, and so when I found a domain that was up for adoption, I put in a request to the owner and I was accepted. It was called imperfect-angel.info and it was the first website I ever installed WordPress on.
I later discovered that my website shared the same name as a website with adult content, which was…interesting!
Buying my first domain and starting Empfire
As soon as I got my own bank card and enough funds, I purchased my very first domain: empfire.info.
Empfire is a combination of two words; empire and fire. Empire and Fire are both names of songs by the band Kasabian. I ended up buying a .info domain as it was the cheapest option!
Empfire was my personal and lifestyle blog that I started in 2011 or 2012. I stopped publishing content on there in 2020.
Going to university to study geography
I continued writing blog posts and building websites throughout my school and college years.
In my last year of college, I had to decide whether or not I wanted to go to university.
I knew I wanted to go to university because I wanted to move out of my hometown as soon as possible, and with all the loads and grants available to me, moving away to university would be the easiest way to escape.
I also knew where I wanted to study. I wanted to experience life in a city and Liverpool seemed like the perfect place to live as it’s still quite close to Shropshire, the city isn’t too big, and the people are lovely.
What I didn’t know was what I wanted to study.
My original plan was to study for a degree in marine biology, but during my time at college, I realised that I did actually enjoy biology as much as I thought I did, and I was also struggling with it. I also considered studying something technology related, like computer science, but I worried that I would lose interest in it if I was studying it full-time.
In the end, I decided to study geography as I enjoyed it, I was good at it, and it seemed to have good career prospects.
Getting my first job as a web developer
I graduated in summer 2015 with a first class honours degree in Geography (BSc). And as soon as I had sat my final exam, I started applying for jobs.
I knew I didn’t want to pursue a career related to my geography degree, but I didn’t know I wanted to do instead. I thought I would find myself a job, finally earn myself some money, and then decided what to do next.
I applied for all sorts of jobs in all sorts of industries because I needed a job so I could pay my bills. On a whim, I applied for a job as a web developer because I actually had all the skills they were requesting. I never expected to get invited to an interview for that job, let alone then be offered the job the day after my interview!
The feeling of relief and excitement that comes with getting a job was soon replaced with anxiety. For a good couple of months, I felt like a complete fraud. I felt like someone was going to catch me.
Just one year after starting with the company, I was promoted, and I dropped “junior” from my web developer title. I think it was at this point in my career that I realised that I was good at my job, and I did deserve to be there.
Quitting my full-time job as a web developer
To reiterate what I said before, nothing stays the same forever. About a year and a half into this job I realised that I wasn’t enjoying it any more. I was miserable and my mental health was in a very bad place.
I tried my hardest to stick with it, but in the end, I decided to quit at the end of 2017. And no, I didn’t have another job to go to. It wasn’t an easy choice and it was completely out of character for me.
Starting my own business
After leaving my full-time job as a web developer, I decided I wanted to start my own business.
I don’t come from a family of business owners, and starting my own business felt incredibly scary. However, blogging had lead me to the online business space, and I’d witnessed so many other women starting their own business. Suddenly it felt like something that was possible for me.
In early 2018, I purchased this domain, built a website, and started offering WordPress web development services to anyone and everyone. I focused on creating content for my blog as a long term marketing strategy and spent a lot of time on social media looking for clients.
My first 6 months in business were incredibly quiet, and I was starting to have doubts about whether I was capable of running my own business. But slowly, the clients started coming in and by the end of the first year I was making enough money for the business to feel like it could be sustainable.
And here we are!
It’s 2025 and I’m now in my 8th year of running my web development business.
Since starting my business I have worked on hundreds of websites and collaborated with countless amazing web designers and business owners. It’s not been easy, and there have definitely been times where I’ve considered throwing in the towel, but I truly love running a business and being a web developer.
I feel so lucky that I get to call this my job, and I hope I’m still here doing this incredible work for many years to come.
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